The present invention relates to the field of vehicle devices, and, more particularly, to a tracking and alerting system for a vehicle.
Motor vehicles, such as passenger cars, trucks, busses, fleet vehicles, etc. are widely used and knowing the locations of such vehicles is often desired. For example, should a vehicle be stolen, it would be beneficial to know the vehicle""s location so that authorities could be promptly and accurately directed to retrieve the vehicle. Indeed, the tracking system could plot the getaway path of the thief.
For a company with hired drivers, it may be desirable to know the driver""s whereabouts during the course of the day. Similarly, a rental car agency or other fleet operator, for example, may wish to know the whereabouts of its fleet of vehicles.
It may also be desirable to track the location of a vehicle as it is used throughout the course of a normal day. For parents of younger or older drivers, for example, knowledge of the vehicle""s location may provide some assurance that the driver is at designated locations and following a prescribed route.
A number of patents disclose various systems and approaches to tracking vehicles. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,223,844 discloses a tracking system including a control center and a mobile unit installed in the vehicle. The mobile unit may send security warnings to the command center via a wireless transceiver. Position information for the vehicle is determined using a GPS receiver at the vehicle.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,515,043 discloses a similar system which may send one or more preprogrammed telephone messages to a user when away from the vehicle. The user may remotely access location information or cause certain commands to be carried out by entering a personal identification number (PIN).
The widespread availability and use of the Internet has prompted a number of vehicle tracking systems to also make use of the Internet. For example, TelEvoke, Inc. proposed such a system in combination with Clifford Electronics. The system was to provide notification, control and tracking services via the telephone or the Internet. Users could be notified via phone, e-mail, or pager of events such as a car alarm being triggered. Users could control the vehicle remote devices via phone, web, or PDA such as unlocking car doors. Additionally, users could track TelEvoke-enabled vehicles on the Internet or via the telephone. An Internet map could be viewed by the user showing the actual and prior vehicle locations. TelEvoke offered its services via a centralized fully automated Network Operations Center. To reduce the communications costs, it was proposed to use the control channel of the cellular telephone network.
Many conventional vehicle tracking units include many input and output connections. Accordingly, such units may be difficult to install in a vehicle. This is especially so since the space available to access and connect to vehicle wires is likely to be restricted. Accordingly, errors in the initial installation may occur. Accurate diagnosis of any such errors may be time consuming and add further to the installation costs. Maintenance of an installed system may also be complicated if each connection must be individually checked and rechecked.
Another potential drawback of using vehicle tracking units is that of excessive power drain on the vehicle""s battery (or a battery reversed for the vehicle tracking unit). That is, when the vehicle is off, even if the vehicle tracking unit is not currently activated it must still power its receiver to detect when an activation signal has been directed thereto. Typical prior art approaches to reducing such power consumption usually include turning the vehicle tracking unit""s receiver on during a predetermined window of time (e.g., fifteen minutes) at certain intervals (e.g., once a day) for receiving the activation signal. Yet, it may be difficult for a user to send the activation signal during such a relatively short window. Further, even though the window is relatively short, having the receiver powered on for fifteen minutes each day may still lead to a significant power drain on a battery.
In view of the foregoing background, it is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a vehicle tracking unit which may be relatively easily activated by a user and which provides for reduced power consumption.
This and other objects, features, and advantages in accordance with the present invention are provided by a vehicle tracking unit which may include a vehicle position determining device, a wireless communications device, and a controller. The controller may cooperate with the vehicle position determining device and the wireless communications device to send vehicle position information to a monitoring station based upon receiving an activation signal via a communications network. Furthermore, the controller may selectively cause the vehicle tracking unit to be in a low power mode to conserve power. Also, the controller may cooperate with the wireless communications device to intermittently awaken the vehicle tracking unit from the low power mode to poll the communications network to thereby determine whether the activation signal has been directed to the vehicle tracking unit.
In particular, the vehicle may further include an engine, and the controller may selectively cause the vehicle tracking unit to be in the low power mode based upon the engine being off. Moreover, the vehicle may also include a vehicle ignition switch coupled to the engine and the controller, and the controller may detect the engine being off based upon the vehicle ignition switch being switched to an off position. Also, the controller may selectively cause the vehicle tracking unit to be in the low power mode responsive to the passage of a predetermined time since the engine was turned off, and/or responsive to a voltage of the vehicle battery dropping below a threshold.
The communications network may be a cellular communications network, for example. The cellular communications network may store indications of missed calls, and the activation signal may be stored as at least one missed call by the cellular communications network. Alternately, the cellular communications network may store voice mail messages, and the activation signal may be stored as a voice mail message by the cellular communications network. Further, the cellular communications network may transmit data packets and/or voice data.
Also, the controller may wait a predetermined time after receiving the activation signal before selectively causing the vehicle tracking unit to return to the low power mode. Further, the communications network may provide a notification to the monitoring station upon being polled by the wireless communications device. The controller may also cooperate with the wireless communications device for determining when the communications network is out of range, determining when the communications network is back in range after being out of range, and polling the communications network when back in range to determine whether the activation signal has been directed to the vehicle tracking unit while the communications network was out of range.
In addition, the wireless communications device may include a receiver, and the controller may cause the receiver to be turned off when the vehicle tracking unit is in the low power mode. Intervals of awakening the vehicle tracking unit from the low power mode may be in a range of about 12 to 48 hours, for example. Also, the vehicle position determining device may be a Global Positioning System (GPS) device, for example.
A method aspect of the invention is for using a vehicle tracking unit. The method may include selectively causing the vehicle tracking unit to be in a low power mode to conserve power, and periodically awakening the vehicle tracking unit from the low power mode to poll a communications network to determine whether an activation signal has been directed to the vehicle tracking unit via the communications network. Furthermore, the method may also include sending vehicle position information to a monitoring station based upon receiving the activation signal.
Yet another method aspect of the invention is for a vehicle of a type comprising a vehicle tracking unit responsive to an activation signal from a communications network. The method may include determining when the communications network is out of range, determining when the communications network is back in range after being out of range, and polling the communications network when back in range to determine whether the activation signal has been directed to the vehicle tracking unit while the communications network was out of range. Moreover, the method may also include sending vehicle position information to a monitoring station based upon determining the activation signal was directed to the vehicle tracking unit while the communications network was out of range.